How much do YOU pay?

[icelore]

I got my baby when he was young, and I never spent more then $40 (maybe $50 MAX) feeding him, even though he's still in his "bottomless pit" stage. I bought crickets in bulk, the largest size he could eat, and that saves a lot. If you buy really tiny feeders, they are still priced per individual insect, so you pay more to feed your dragon. That goes with worms as well. Even with things like large super worms, I would cut one in three pieces so he would get one a day instead of feeding him a handful of small ones. When you think about it like that, there is a vast difference in price between one large a day (30 a month) and 4 small a day (120 a month), but it's the same *amount* being fed. If I ended up with too many crickets, or they were starting to die off, I would freeze them to be fed later so they didn't go to waste. I made sure to take as good a care of my feeder insects as I possibly could to minimize deaths as well, and stuck to cheaper insects (crickets, superworms).

As for greens, I would buy smaller amounts, wash, cut and mix them, and put most of it in a storage bowl packed with paper towels (to absorb moisture). I only opened that large bowl once a week to fill my smaller "every day" bowl, and that way saved money cause the bulk of the greens stayed fresh for approx. 3 weeks. All left over veggies (including what he didn't eat daily) went to feed my insects so none was wasted. I have never bought commercial insect food, gutload, or water crystals this way, against saving money.

There are TONS of corners you can cut to be thrifty if you don't have the money to just charge in and buy whatever. As long as you check prices at lots of different places, buy in bulk when you can, you're good to go.

 

[icelore]

a guy just won 1000 supers for 9 bucks..and another about 900 dubias for 30...i really cant see how people pay retail when established vendors have deals like this on facebook...

This. I think there is a difference between having the disposable income to spend on retail and not even looking for better deals VS needing to find more efficient ways of feeding though.

 

[schwemermatt]

Hi, we have been thinking about getting a BD for a while and are going to look at one this week. He is around 2 yrs old and 16". I was reading about buying feeding items off the facebook classified and wasn't sure what the feeder site mentioned is called. I joined the reptile classifieds today but can you tell me more specific what the name is for the site you buy the food from?
Thank you

 

[joehaggerty]

i was paying out the ass for crickets weekly, up to $30 but i bought a dubia breeding colony to put an end to crickets and i have a bunch of dubia that i ordered online for about $80 to hold him off until the breeders can be fed

 

[USCgrad]

Like the beardie classifies its called feeder classified under the reptile classified...so it would read reptile classified - feeders or pull up west coast roaches or cns feeders in fb and that should link you also..

 

[bobbycarp]

That sounds like the cost of feeders from a pet store which will easily cost that or more. I don't even spend $30 including electricity.

 

[SpazzUnscripted]

Pretzel's probably about a year old now. We don't pay any more than normal for her fruits and veggies--we have it all in our fridge already and the difference is negligible--but my goodness the dubia.

Normally we get them at our local reptile shop. We buy a tub of 100 crix, 3 times a week, and give her about 50/day. She would eat more if we gave her more--she doesn't have much appetite except for dubia--but we just can't afford it since I'm recently unemployed and my fiance works at Wal Mart. The tub of 100 is $15 plus tax.

So... 15x3=45/week. Multiply that and cry with me a little.

We've tried worms of all kinds and crickets. She won't eat them. Last time I fed her crix, she ate one (I think she didn't realize what it was until it was in her mouth), then bearded at me for a minute and hid in her cave for the rest of the day. Seriously the snot is spoiled.

I finally convinced my fiance to order in bulk, so we're going to be going a lot cheaper online. Yay.

 

[Sauzo]

Lol sounds like Harley, my 3.5 month old. She turned her nose up at crickets after she got the taste for dubias. Try ordering em online. You can get better deals. And you're lucky your beardie only eats 50 dubias a day at 1 year old. Harley eats 30 4/8-5/8 size ones a day and she's only 3.5 months old. I spend around 55$ bucks every 2 weeks keeping her in dubias till my colony can sustain itself. And as for worms, same thing. Harley liked phoenix worms and reptiworms for about a month. Now they are about as high on the list of food as greens at her age I'm prolly gonna give some small hornworms a try and see how she likes those. For crickets, i'd definitely order online. You can get like 1000 1/2 inch crickets from Ghanns cricket farm for 14$ + shipping. Of course it's kind of a moot point since she won't even I guess haha. But yeah, baby/young beardies aren't cheap. My red tail boa is a lot cheaper. She's happy with a couple large mice or rats a week.

 

[Elitehorn]

I got my baby when he was young, and I never spent more then $40 (maybe $50 MAX) feeding him, even though he's still in his "bottomless pit" stage. I bought crickets in bulk, the largest size he could eat, and that saves a lot. If you buy really tiny feeders, they are still priced per individual insect, so you pay more to feed your dragon. That goes with worms as well. Even with things like large super worms, I would cut one in three pieces so he would get one a day instead of feeding him a handful of small ones. When you think about it like that, there is a vast difference in price between one large a day (30 a month) and 4 small a day (120 a month), but it's the same *amount* being fed. If I ended up with too many crickets, or they were starting to die off, I would freeze them to be fed later so they didn't go to waste. I made sure to take as good a care of my feeder insects as I possibly could to minimize deaths as well, and stuck to cheaper insects (crickets, superworms).

As for greens, I would buy smaller amounts, wash, cut and mix them, and put most of it in a storage bowl packed with paper towels (to absorb moisture). I only opened that large bowl once a week to fill my smaller "every day" bowl, and that way saved money cause the bulk of the greens stayed fresh for approx. 3 weeks. All left over veggies (including what he didn't eat daily) went to feed my insects so none was wasted. I have never bought commercial insect food, gutload, or water crystals this way, against saving money.

There are TONS of corners you can cut to be thrifty if you don't have the money to just charge in and buy whatever. As long as you check prices at lots of different places, buy in bulk when you can, you're good to go.

Thank you so much for your information! I am currently going to my local pet store tomorrow to buy a feeder mouse for my ball python. I know the owner has been keeping & breeding beardies for awhile now, so he should be able to help me with any further questions. Thanks again! You information was much appreciated.

 

[Sauzo]

Another good cheap thing to do is just breed dubia roaches. They are easy(except when you first get them and have a bunch of die off cause of the weather) . But once you get the colony going, you got pretty much free food. And their food is pretty cheap. I buy 25 lb bags of Scratch and Peck Organic soybean and corn free starter chick mash which is 21% protein for like $25. That lasts awhile and as Icelore said, I just feed em leftover dragon veggies as well as toss in a carrot or orange here and there as well as loose fruit like grapes or brown part of bananas or apple cores. I wouldn't feed too much fruit too often though so you don't get fruit flies. I would try a handful of dubias first though to make sure your dragon likes them. Personally Harley can't get enough of em but I've read some people saying their dragons didn't like them. Can also breed crickets but those things stink and are evil.

 

[Elitehorn]

Another good cheap thing to do is just breed dubia roaches. They are easy(except when you first get them and have a bunch of die off cause of the weather) . But once you get the colony going, you got pretty much free food. And their food is pretty cheap. I buy 25 lb bags of Scratch and Peck Organic soybean and corn free starter chick mash which is 21% protein for like $25. That lasts awhile and as Icelore said, I just feed em leftover dragon veggies as well as toss in a carrot or orange here and there as well as loose fruit like grapes or brown part of bananas or apple cores. I wouldn't feed too much fruit too often though so you don't get fruit flies. I would try a handful of dubias first though to make sure your dragon likes them. Personally Harley can't get enough of em but I've read some people saying their dragons didn't like them. Can also breed crickets but those things stink and are evil.

I will look into that and gather some more info.. I was thinking because a juvenile beardies feeding options are very limited and expensive, that I should get an adult. Do you think that would be a good idea?

 

[Sauzo]

I don't know. I got Harley when she was 6 weeks old and it's fine. They do need a lot of insects at that age but something about raising a dragon from a hatchling that makes it worth it.